376 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



to speakers of the Unalaska dialect of Aleutian, refers to a land, not 

 to an island. The ordinary Russian corruption of this Aleutian noun 

 was Al^aksa, but sometimes Alaska. The reference in Russian was 

 to the Alaska Peninsula. The region that we call in English Alaska 

 was always referred to by the Russians as Russian America. Alaska 

 became a Territory of the United States as a result of the Alaska Pur- 

 chase of 1867, and was designated as Alaska Territory, the name 

 Alaska being extended to designate the entire mainland and islands 

 of the purchase. 



Arizona. — The originating form of the name Arizona is in the Papa- 

 go dialect of the Pima language, of the Shoshonean stock, and is 

 'Arishoonak, meaning "little spring place." The springs referred to 

 are in the bed of Arizona Creek 1 mile upstream from the Arizona 

 ranchhouse, which is itself 1 mile up Arizona Creek from Planchas de 

 Plata Creek, where a fabulous find of silver in its native state was 

 made about 1735. The Spanish corruption of 'Arishoonak as Arizonac, 

 also Arizona, and the word was taken over in the latter form by the 

 Americans. The region of the springs is in the northern part of 

 Sonora, Mexico, and not within the present bounds of the United 

 States. The Arizona of the United States consists of land acquired 

 through the Mexican cession of 1846 and the Gadsden Purchase of 

 1855. ArizonabecameaTerritory in 1863andaStateinl9r2. Among 

 several other names proposed for application to the new Territory, 

 Arizona happened to be adopted. 



Arkansas. — The State name Arkansas is another form of the State 

 name Kansas. Both orthographies are French in origin, the final s of 

 both names being silent in French. The State of Arkansas was part 

 of the land acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. The Marquette map 

 of 1673 is the first recording of this name. Arkansas Territory was 

 created in 1819 and became a State in 1836. See "Kansas" for ety- 

 mology. 



California. — The name California is the old Spanish designation 

 of the peninsula of Lower California. This name was at its very 

 inception applied both to the pearl-fishing colony of Cortes, estab- 

 lished May 3, 1535, and to its hinterland. This colony was apparently 

 on Santo Espiritu Island in La Paz Bay, situated in the southern part 

 of the eastern coast of the peninsula. Perhaps Cortes and others 

 started calling the place California, but why was not known. 



In 1862 Hale called the attention of historians and of the world 

 to the fact that California is the name of the Amazon island in 

 Montalvo's sixteenth-century Spanish novel called "Esplandian." 

 The New World place name must have been taken from the name 

 in the novel, but no historical statement to this effect has ever been 

 discovered. Subsequent to this discovery by Hale, earlier etymologies 

 of the word California have retreated. 



